X-Men: Hindsight
by Deyna Ian Bloom
Summary: A few months ago, Cassie was a normal human... or so she thought. Now she's living at a mutant school, may or may not have a thing for the school's prisoner, and can see everyone's future except her own.


I'm not special. A lot of people say that, but what they mean is that they've never _felt_ special. Someone else could see you as the most special talented person alive, and you'd never see or feel that way. For the first twenty-five years of my life I was unaware of how unique I was. Then suddenly, it was blatantly obvious even to me that I was different from everyone else. Well. _Almost_ everyone else.

My name is Cassie, and I'm a mutant.

-x-

X-Men: Hindsight

-x-

Another boring day at work. How much longer until I could go home and read something that wasn't a comic book? I checked the Superman wall clock that hung above the gaming dice. Five more minutes.

A male customer walked up to me so I started ringing up his purchase. The novelty of a girl working in the gaming store had long worn off, so I was spared the inappropriate staring. The female customers always tried to out-nerd me, like I was one of the "pretend" gamer chicks that were only there to check out the men or watch Anime. Not that I didn't enjoy an occasional Anime, provided no one had ginormous boobs or blue hair.

After ringing up two starter Magic decks (yawn), Superman informed me my shift was over. I clocked out in the back and grabbed my stuff. A few of my co-workers, Rob and Jason, were nearby sorting new products.

"Hey Cassie," Jason said. "Got a hot date?" He was about 40, 15 years my senior, and was always nice.

"Oh, don't I wish," I replied with a smile.

Rob poked me with his back scratcher. "You could always heat up my apartment for me."

I stuck my tongue out at him and opened the back door. "Heehee haha." A cat call sounded before the back door closed, so I yelled loud enough for them to hear, "SEXUAL HARRASSMENT!" Something thumped against the door, a shoe I'd bet, and I could hear them booing me. I laughed and walked down the alley to the street.

I caught sight of my mom's car waiting to pick me up. I couldn't drive because I took high dosage allergy medicine. It had a few side effects, like fatigue and some head tension, but without it, I got agonizing headaches. Luckily, my boss was always willing to let me off work if I felt bad.

My mom was listening to one of her vanilla romance novels on tape when I slid into the front seat. They were so boring, and as I said, vanilla. She didn't approve of my less appropriate romance novels, so I had a cloth book cover to hide the shirtless men and scantily clad women.

"Nice day at work?" she asked me after we'd started moving. "Did you take your medicine on time?"

"_Simon smiled at her and lightly touched her arm. 'It's because I love you, Mary.' Mary took his hand from her arm and gripped it tightly. 'I'm so glad.'"_

My mother was smiling as she listened, but all I could think of was why Simon and Mary weren't making out like fools. I said yes to her question, and tried to drown out the audio tape.

The smell of stew in the Crockpot filled the kitchen when we got home. We sat down to a quiet meal. Midway through, I had a déjà vu when I reached for the salt. It happened a lot, almost daily. I never talked about it because it seemed insignificant. Sometimes I pretended I was stuck in the Matrix and it kept resetting.

As soon as I was done eating, I got in the shower. Another déjà vu hit me, me being upset and the sight of my pink bath soap. My head started to pound and I realized I'd missed a dose of medicine. Quickly, I got out of the shower and got my pills from the medicine cabinet. As soon as they were down my throat, my headache went away, as well as the uneasiness from the Matrix resetting. Ha.

My mom was playing opera music when I left the bathroom, so I shut my bedroom door and put on something more pleasing to my ears. I picked up the erotic novel I'd started yesterday and disappeared into a world of hot dirty sex.

'_His hand travelled up her bare thigh until he gripped her ass cheeks. "I'm going to devour you until you are screaming at me to stop." She shuddered and pulled at her bound wrists, scared and excited all at once.'_

I was about to need another shower before this chapter was over. The book continued to get steamy so I almost didn't notice the loud thump coming from my mom's room. I jumped up and rushed to check on her. She was in her sixties, much older than my friends' moms. Maybe she fell and broke something?

When I got to her room, she was lying on the floor, and she wasn't moving.


End file.
